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G@mebox author Lutz Wildt writes about the game:
It is always exciting when a circus comes to town, may it be a big or one of the smaller family circuses. Sometimes there are great artists, real masters of their art, but more often there are just a few clowns, a juggler with clubs and three ponies. A first hint of what you can expect are the posters that the circus hangs on the fences or sticks on the walls. Another indication of which league the circus belongs to is, of course, the size of the circus tent and the number of caravans that come with it and take up more or less space on the fairground. As a circus visitor, you usually want to experience something great and breathtaking in the captivating circus atmosphere. But nowadays, circus directors have a really hard time getting the audience excited, because other entertainment offers, especially movies and general the television have set the bar very high with their special effects and bombastic shows.
If you want to place yourself in the tricky position of a circus director, I recommend trying the game The Magnificent from APORTA GAMES. The players slip into the role of circus directors and try to enchant the audience by bringing breathtaking performances into the ring. Of course, the player who by this can sell the most tickets wins the game. Now, anyone who has been involved in the one or other circus game in recent years will wonder whether The Magnificent is more in the direction of the successful skill game Meeple Circus or whether it is more comparable to the strategy game Drum Roll. So let us see how it works:
Click on image to enlarge!In the game, the prospective circus directors have 3 rounds of 4 turns each to establish and expand their circus. For this they collect resources to let the artists perform and thereby sell the more and more tickets. As in any good circus, all this is done while travelling around the country, building and expanding the camp and presenting different acts and artists. In addition to the main board on which the central game elements take place, each player has a player board on which he collect resources, pitch his tents and expand his camp for the artists. This also includes four master cards on which the players can use dice. The course of a turn is always the same: a player selects a die from the common pool in the main tent, places it on one of his 4 master cards and receives the corresponding bonus. This bonus can be money, points, resources (in form of gems) or possible modifications of the values of the dice. This modification is an important detail, because the value of the selected die determines the further action the player can perform: travelling, building or performing. If all of the 4 mastercards are occupied, the round ends. When choosing a die, the colour of the die is also quite important, since it sets limits for the execution of the action. For example, a green die on the Travel Area can only be used to move forward with a wagon in the green area, and an orange die can only be used to place the orange camp tiles. However, the colour of the die is not important for the performance. But if you choose the same colour again in one of your following turns, the die will add up to a common new value which can be used for the following action. In addition to the standard colours green, purple and orange, there are also transparent dice that can be used as jokers if the right colour is not available for a move. But beware! High scores are suitable for more powerful moves, but at the end of a round they must be paid from the circus cash box. And because players must give away from victory points if they cannot pay, you should think carefully about which die from the Main Tent you choose for your actions. Especially since a player loses one point in the first round, two points in the second round and even three points in the third round for each coin requested that he cannot pay. So far, so good! Building, travelling and performing... But how does all of this work in the game? There are some wooden pieces in the box, but The Magnificent is not like Meeple Circus (a skill game with dice). It is rather an economic simulation game, which reminds a little bit of Drum Roll. However, the interaction of the different game elements is much more difficult. Let's start from the back. Understandably, most of the points can be obtained through the performances of the artists. However, to let them perform with the Perform Action, the directors need some prerequisites, which are shown on the detailed posters, and of course they need a circus tent. Fortunately, each player has a tent and a poster available right from the beginning, I will explain how to get supplies later. First of all, the building action comes into play, since the artists want to live somewhere before their performance begins. This brings the camp tiles into play with predefined colours and sizes. The basic rule is that the more points you can get from an artist, the more tiles you have to have in your camp. The building process itself is quite simple. You choose a die of the desired colour from the Main Tent and then you are allowed to build a corresponding number of large or small camp Tiles of the same colour. The higher the cube value, the more and/or larger tiles a player may build. The expansion of the camp is reminiscent of Tetris, since the individual tiles have Tetris shapes and a new tile must always be placed adjacent to an existing one. If you place these camp tiles skillfully you will get hidden gems, coins or new posters. But the action becomes more difficult if only low die values of the needed colour are available to build enough tiles. Of course you can use a joker die, if available. But remember that you have to pay extra at the end of the round. Luckily, next to the possible modifications of the dice values mentioned above, there is also the possibility to use gems of the same colour or colourless gems as jokers. This increases the value of the die by two without having to pay for this at the end of the round. In the following turns, combinations of the dice values of the same colour must also be chosen cleverly to get the high values as cheap as possible. For example, if a player already has an orange die with the value 4 and chooses a 3 in a following turn, he has 7 points available for the current turn, which he can use for building two small orange camp tiles. Click on image to enlarge!The camp is then ready for the performance, but there is still another problem: to make the actions more powerful at low costs, the players need more gems than they can earn with their master cards. In addition, new tents are needed to allow several artists to perform in the same show. After all, there are only 12 turns in total. For this reason, let's take a quick look at the Travel Action. The principle of using cube values remains the same. In this case it refers to the number of steps a player may move on one of the three Travel Tracks with the wagon in the colour of the selected die. The player receives all gems and posters shown in the pictures, over which he moves. In addition, he may take a tent if his move ends on such a space. New tents can offer decisive advantages that come into play in the Performance Action. They show tickets, coins or gems. However, a player does not receive these directly, but instead he has to pay for their use if he lets an artist perform in the tent. If a player does not have enough "cheap tents", it will be very expensive for him to let several artists perform at the same time. Click on image to enlarge!Now everything is prepared for the performances of the artists. Of course, this action is also triggered by selecting a die. This time, however, the colour of the die is not decisive for the selection of the artist(s). Instead, the value of the die determines the number of artists that can perform in the same show. And it is not cheap: one artist costs you at least 4 points, and 20 points are necessary to send 5 artists in the same round. However, if a player starts a performance, his directors Hat Figure will be placed on the lowest field of the track, which can then no longer be used by the other players in this round. They must then use higher die values to carry out the performances. But always remember: In order to let an artist perform, all requirements have to be fulfilled that are demanded on the poster and the corresponding tent. While required coins, tickets and gems have to be put back into the general supply, the Camp Tiles remain on the player board and can be used for later rounds again. After the successful performance of their artists, the players receive the victory points and coins shown on the poster, which will move the player forward on the score board and replenish the circus cash box. Click on image to enlarge!I would like to explain another possibility of modification at this point: at the beginning of the game, each player has a training marker at his disposal with which he can modify certain events. For example, cube values can be changed, additional camp tiles can be built or performance requirements can be ignored if a training marker is used on a corresponding trainer tile. In the course of the game these training markers can be collected for example via the build action. At the beginning of the game this possibility seems to be quite limited. However, as the game progresses, their use becomes more and more valuable. The limited selection of dice is often no longer sufficient to be successful, since turns only by choosing the existing dice would mean a too low score. After 4 turns, all master cards are filled with dice and a game round ends. In an intermediate step the players may then choose a new Master Card and a Trainer Tile for their player area. In addition to the explained bonus area of a master card card, there is another area on the master cards used for scoring, for example for the number of camp tiles or performances. After the final scoring, the player with the most points has best mastered the demands of modern circus entertainment and wins the competition. Click on image to enlarge!The Magnificent is not as complicated as it sounds and seems at first glance. On the contrary! The various moves and actions are quite simple and easy to grasp. The game board and the player boards are, next to the excellent graphical implementation, clearly arranged. But there are plenty ways for your opponents to make the game difficult to master. As a result all players must keep an eye on the progress of their opponents, so that their own moves can be planned as effectively as possible. It is always a good idea to think about alternative moves, since the choice and action of another player can quickly ruin your own ideas. While this is still manageable in a two-player game, it gets much more complex in a three-player game. And this is exactly what makes the game interesting. This circus was not on my table for the last time. Curtain up for another round: The Magnificent! |
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